SAN ANTONIO – Nearly four years after a deadly crash, Kenneth Relitz is on trial, accused in a case the state says involved a cover-up.
Geoffrey Shafer, 38, who was known to many as the “bike guy,” was struck and killed Sept. 21, 2022, while riding his bike on Culebra Road, court records and prosecutors say.
According to prosecutors, 911 calls reporting a person struck were received around 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2022, and the man at the scene was later identified as Shafer.
A day later, officers located a vehicle abandoned less than half a mile from the crash site and interviewed the vehicle’s owner, Kenneth Relitz, who told investigators he reported the car missing the morning of Sept. 22 and had been home the night before.
In March 2024, police arrested Relitz and charged him with collision involving death, saying at the time that DNA attributed to Relitz matched blood found in the car.
After pretrial proceedings, the trial began on Tuesday, where the state argued it took investigators two years to solve what prosecutors called a cover-up.
The state framed its opening around the timeline and investigative decisions, while the defense disputed the handling of evidence and the lead detective’s work.
If convicted of the charged offense, Relitz faces up to 20 years in prison.
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